Weatherwatch: why short memories may be bad for the climate

Rising temperatures may seem like the new normal.
Photograph: Jim Wood/Alamy

The record-breaking warmth at the end of February was remarkable, but as cases of extreme temperatures become more common do they have any effect on people’s attitudes to the climate?

A fascinating study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal looked at more than 2bn tweets in the US about unusual cold or hot weather, and revealed that people get used to such extremes fairly quickly. As time goes by and unusual weather becomes more frequent, people seem to view the new highs and lows as simply the normal state of the climate, and memories of the weather years ago fade away.

One of the researchers, Frances Moore, of the University of California, Davis, said: “We are experiencing conditions that are historically extreme, but they might not feel particularly unusual if we tend to forget what happened more than about five years ago.”

Getting used to unusual weather may not seem like a big deal, but if these extreme cases are seen as fairly normal it may be colouring the public’s perceptions of climate change. And that is worrying at a time when action is urgently needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.